Jesus saith to him: I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No man cometh to the Father, but by me.

John 14:6

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear is in an ironic mood:

We will probably never know what Pilate meant when he asked Christ, “What is truth?” Sarcasm? The world-weary cynicism of a Roman official with one of the most difficult jobs of Rome? Or perhaps the echo of a genuine question from a decent young man long ago ground down by his responsibilities to a brutal empire?

In any case, it is the wrong question for our time and is causing Catholics far too much anguish and contention.

The question is not “what is truth,” and we betray our naïveté when we ask and our disloyalty to the Church when we complain. The legitimate question is “what does the Church now say the truth is?” In fact, the second question always answers the first, because of the inerrant truth-knowing feature built into the Church as an institution and the Pope in his office.

“Truth” is nothing more or less than what the Church, through its many channels, but in our day, primarily the Pope, says it is. We now understand that truth is a construct that is contingent upon the matrix in which we live. This matrix is comprised of our evolving language; our behavior; and the changing moral consensus of our culture as expressed in many different ways, ranging from our laws to popular entertainment. The truth is to be found in the current teachings of the Church.

The Church reflects the culture, and perhaps has done so for most of its existence, although we can only speak certainly of our own time.

It is irrelevant whether Church teachings are formal or not. Indeed, the less formal teachings of the Pope with a microphone in his hand loom larger in both the culture and the minds of individual Catholics. It is the informal teachings which are seized by the news gatekeepers, massaged, and then proclaimed in partnership with the Church – not merely reported, it is important to note.

“What is truth?” is not some great mystery. One of the main purposes of the Church is to be the authority that tells us what the truth is for our generation. The power of the keys means that the truth is whatever the Church – ultimately Peter – says it is. The Church is trusted with not just proclaiming the truth, but creating it.

It must be so.

The Bible is understood by all but the most conservative Protestant scholars as a collection of tales edited long after the events it relates by men who wished to promote different and sometimes conflicting agendas. It is certainly not historically reliable, according to the very best scholarship. Read the notes to the United States Conference of Catholic Bishop’s Bible, the New American Bible, Revised Edition if you have any doubts. They will quickly disabuse you of any lingering Protestant tendency toward bibliolatry.

Only a fundamentalist would today hold up the Bible as containing “the truth.”

Only the most naive traditionalist would look to the teachings of the brutal, superstitious and exclusivist past of the Church to find the truth for today’s world.

Neither Holy Scripture nor poking around in the Museum of Church History can be the source of truth today. No, the truth is what the Church says it is, most immediately and importantly through the Pope when he utters his oracles to the interpretive priestly class of reporters.

Let go of the irrelevant past and embrace the truth as it has evolved right up to this second and is proclaimed by the Pope: Peter, upon whom the Church was built and to whom the Keys of Binding and Loosing were given in perpetuity. Yesterday’s Catholics owed the same duty to yesterday’s Church. Why would some of you, today, presume to be less faithful and arrogate to yourselves the authority to decide “what is truth?”

Do you imagine for an instant that the Pope himself could (if he would even think of such a crime, which he could not, protected from error as he is) weave a carpet of lies to spread beneath the Bride of Christ without an army of brave and faithful bishops rising up to challenge him? The teachings of the Pope are confirmed by the agreement of the clergy, the acceptance of the people, and his personal popularity with the entire world. You may trust him without question and to question him is to place oneself outside the Church.

5 Responses to Bear Growls: Truth

We are not left orphans but, Lord, this is hard!
Is the pope antichrist? Are we?
Lord, who can accept this!?
Does the Church teach Truth? Are we the Church?
Save us from apostasy. Holy Spirit fill us so that we can trust in the Love and nearness of the Holy Spirit.

I feel his pain, our bruin friend.
In the examination of modern Truth a clarity flawed by magnification is my humble take. That being the glass used to examine Truth. Mercy is the magnifier.
If mercy itself is myopic then the Truth is perceived in narrow terms only, the focus is lost in distance. The application of mercy becomes troublesome because blurred vision will not allow one to see the path ahead…only the culture in the face is in complete focus.

Truth of course is neither modern nor ancient.

Like the foundations of Mt. Tabor it is the same yesterday today and tomorrow.

God have mercy on us.
Correct our sight. Clarity of vision is rooted in the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Jesus Christ is the Revelation of God in Truth. The Vicar of Christ is Truth only when the Vicar of Christ is the Vicar of Christ. Man, in his sovereign personhood, must pursue his destiny and Happiness to attain his original innocence as was done by Saint Augustine. The Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ is the Way to attain our original innocence into which our rational, immortal, human souls were created and endowed by “their Creator” and the discipline over our fallen nature. The TRUTH is the perfection of Jesus Christ in his obedience to His Father in heaven. What is bound on earth cannot be unbound in heaven. God does not contradict Himself. God does not revoke free will. What is bound on earth by man’s free will is bound in heaven by God’s gift of free will. God does not reject man’s free will choices but stamps man’s free will choices eternal. God’s mercy gives man the manhood and courage to live by his own choices…the alternative is to become a liar and go to hell.

I have worked in nuclear power for about 40 years since as a late teenager I got qualified to operate a nuclear reactor on a submarine beneath the ocean’s surface back in 79 or so. Science – the laws of physics, chemistry and math – governed everything I did. Not once did God change physical law for my convenience. Not once did the Regulator change regulation so I could do things in my own way instead of the safe way.

Why the freaking frack does this Jorge Bergoglio think God would do ANY differently with spiritual and moral laws?

God does not change. He is Truth. That’s it. We need to repent or we shall surely perish. God always wins in the end, not some geriatric senile Latin American Marxist Peronist.

PS, what is worse – liberals really believe what Bear wrote is literally true with this Pope. They wouldn’t be able to see the sarcasm and irony and paraody. They believe truth changes. This is why they make horrible nukes. They should never be trusted to operate reactors because they can’t accept truth is immutable. They are always trying to work around regulations. Then they crash against the inevitable laws of physics as their stupid dumb-idiot ideas don’t work.

Our Bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear has listed what he sees as the range of opinions about Pope Francis by Catholics on the net:

Pope Francis is the respected successor to St. Peter, and, as such, is due slightly more veneration than was Emperor Hirohito in his day.

Pope Francis may have a wobble in his orbit, but his ordinary magisterium remains just as worthy of respect and assent as any pope’s. That’s the LAW. (Query: if the answer is that we need pay attention only as far as he is right, i.e. in line with other popes, then do we have to memorize Denziger, and how do we know those popes were right? Seems a bit over-engineered for a bunch of Galilean fishermen, if you ask the Bear.)

Pope Francis can do no damage to the Church short of infallibly declaring some abomination before the Lord an Article of Faith, which is not going to happen.

Look, you don’t have to pay attention to everything the old fellow says. Only the big stuff. (Like homosexuality and divorce?) The Church will be protected by God.

Whatever you think about Pope Francis – and let’s admit he’s a few steps short of a tango – he remains THE POPE. Whom one must NEVER criticize. (Paging Michael Voris.)

Entertain your private doubts, if you must, but you’re in danger of heresy, and in any case must never, ever criticize him for fear of starting up the Know Nothings again.

Rome, we have a problem. Prudence and good taste dictate, however, that we do not speak of il Papa’s delicate condition.

We have never quite seen anything like Jorge Bergoglio’s disconnect with the deposit of the Faith nor his willingness to perform end runs around around the Church itself via incessant media exposure. The man is a menace.

No REAL pope would spout half the nonsense he does. Pope Benedict is still at the wheel and Bergoglio is flat out an antipope.

No REAL CHURCH would ever elect someone as evil as Jorge Bergoglio, so he is Exhibit A in the case for sedevacantism.

Jorge Bergoglio is nothing less than Damien in his old age. He is evil. In fact, he is at the very least the FALSE PROPHET. In other words, a cosmic player in the end times.

We had a good run, but the warranty has expired on the Church. Time to become one of those Protestants that get salmon and honey while the praise band is warming up. (Do not tempt Bear.)

Pretty true to our struggle. I think many of us have come to a sad conclusion about this pope and don’t know what to do with that conclusion.
I do have to say, though, the the Bear must not read Michael Voris, or he would know that even Michael is shy of pointing out concerns about Francis- he focuses on the bishops and priests.

“if the answer is that we need pay attention only as far as he is right, i.e. in line with other popes, then do we have to memorize Denziger, and how do we know those popes were right?”

“No Catholic would first take what our objectors call history, fact, antiquity and the like, and from them deduce his faith ; and for this reason, the faith was revealed and taught before history, fact or antiquity existed.

These things are but the basis of his faith, nor is the examination of them his method of theological proof. The Church, which teaches him now by its perpetual living voice, taught the same faith before as yet the Church had a history or an antiquity. The rule and basis of faith to those who lived before either the history or antiquity of which we hear so much existed, is the rule and basis of our faith now.
But perhaps it may be asked: If you reject history and antiquity, how can you know what was revealed before, as you say, history and antiquity existed? ‘I answer: The enunciation of the faith by the living Church of this hour, is the maximum of evidence, both natural and supernatural, as to the fact and the contents of the original revelation. I know what are revealed there not by retrospect, but by listening.”

The ordinary and universal Magisterium is found in the teaching of the Pope and the bishops in communion with him.” In the absence of a consensus, we are in the realm – the very large realm – of theological opinion, not doctrine.

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear does not think much of the Pope’s TED talk:

Everybody loves to hate TED talks. It is an official entry on the “Stuff White People Like” website. Comedian Sam Hyde was spot on when he gave a ridiculously self-congratulatory TED talk on “the 2070 Paradigm Shift” a few years ago, while dressed like a Greek hoplite.

With his “Neo-Earth Good Government League” he should have been the warm-up act for Francis’ TED talk.

Among the gems (this is Sam Hyde):

What inspires me, is teaching African refugees how to program Javascript. What inspires me is finding out how to use MagLev trains to get resources to the moon. These are the challenges that tomorrow’s going to face.

It should be no surprise that Pope Francis popped up on a TED to talk about the “Future You.”

The Bear finds that phrase ominous, since, actuarially, the future Bear will shortly be fertilizing the daisy patch. But, of course, the future is full of hope for Pope Francis. But what kind of hope?

As the Bear read the bland comments, he recalled the brilliant po-mo generator that assembles jargon into academic essays that have fooled at least one journal. It would not be hard to create a “Francis Generator” that did a quick paste job using solidarity, refugees, migrants, youth, arms dealers, dialogue, and those evil northern bastards who stole everything from the south, etc.

This talk could have been generated by the Bear’s hypothetical program. And it is just as hard to write a sensible story about. You can skim it for yourself. It isn’t that long. It is devoid of any genuine Catholic insights. The theological virtue of Hope is reduced to an expectation for a better tomorrow – here on earth. Pope Francis actually calls for a revolution. A worldly revolution, of course, that would put in power progressives like himself.

It makes an uncomfortable read, because you realize that this is not someone who is all that interested in souls, or Heaven, or any of that stuff. Jorge Bergoglio was elected Pope to advance the agenda of the Prince of This World. His gospel is the anti-gospel of the Prince of This World.

So little of what this pontiff talks about pertains to Christ or everlasting life in heaven or repentance for one’s sins. It’s always something to do with left wing political issues. Outside of the elites in the American coasts, academia, Ontario, and the EU, the world has had about enough of leftist crap.

The Vatican may be a rhumba of rattlesnakes, but too few of them are motivated by aberrant ideology to risk a repeat of Sampson’s after-dinner show for the Philistines.

Bear predicts there will be the usual polite language when Bergoglio go-goes, but inside, most prelates are going to be saying, “Boy, did we elect the wrong guy. How could we have been so stupid? Let’s get back to normal ASAP before the Bear hops a tramp salmon freighter and cleans house, but good.”

The Bear does not think the institutional Church enjoys turmoil. Nor does it wish to court schism, however small the risk. And, who knows? Perhaps there are 10 righteous men in Sodom-on-the-Tiber.

The next pope will be a reliable Italian. This whole darts-at-a-map thing has not worked out very well. His job will be to settle the hens down after that fox Bergoglio is gone. The era of the magisterium of the sound byte will be over. Everybody has seen what a disaster it has been.

Nobody likes to be made fun of incessantly.

There will be the usual suspects agitating, but the Bear repeats, institutions do not enjoy chaos. The mainstream plus the faithful will out-vote the cardinals of questionable orthodoxy.

The Bear does not think Bergoglio was voted in over a desire to extend Holy Communion to divorced and remarried persons. The Bear thinks he was elected to be the outsider that would fix things. Perhaps he even ran for pope on that platform. “I’m from Argentina. And if there’s one thing that Argentina is known for it is fixing problems with institutions.”

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear points out that the Pope never misses an opportunity to disappoint:

The whole idea of blogging is that somebody does something and the blogger offers insightful commentary. But Pope Francis is so mind-numbingly stupid there’s just nothing to add.

Muslims mass-murder Christians in Egypt and the Pope says this:

We pray for the victims of the attack carried out unfortunately today, this morning, in Cairo, in a Coptic church. I am close to my dear Brother, His Holiness Pope Tawadros II, and to the Coptic Church and to all the dear Egyptian nation I express my profound condolence; I pray for the deceased and the wounded, I am close to the families and to the whole community. May the Lord convert the heart of all those persons that sow terror, violence and death, and also the heart of those that produce and traffic arms.

Mads starvations would be blamed on capitalism. Or global warming. Or the nations who refuse to take in Muslims. Anything but the source with this guy.
The next edition of Mario Vargas Llosa’s book The Guide to the Perfect Latin American Idiot should have the Pope on the cover.

I agree wholeheartedly with LQ Cincinnatus above– the less attention I
pay to this Pope’s bloviations, the better off I am. It pains me that it’s
come to that. There is a certain symmetry, however, for this Pope has
made it clear that he has nothing but contempt for Catholics of the
“Promethian neo-Pelagian” variety like myself.

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear gives us a Bear’s view of current events as gleaned from the mainstream press:

Here is a recap of world news based on the Bear’s cursory reading of stories the past few days. The Bear has been busy and may have gotten a few details wrong, but he’s pretty sure the gist is accurate.

WASHINGTON D.C. (March 24, 2017) — Trump the Usurper hosted a hunting trip for Soviet strongman Vladimir Putin. The pair were seen on the banks of the Potomac River clubbing adorable baby river seals to death with babies. Witnesses also report Trump the Usurper backed a dump truck full of $100,000,000 bills and buried a laughing Putin. The two men spent the rest of the afternoon playing in the pile of money like children in autumn leaves.

WASHINGTON D.C. (March 24, 2017) — Legitimate President Dear Leader Hillary Clinton staged a lightning raid on Richmond, Virginia yesterday, freeing thousands of slaves. Trump the Usurper had last Thursday declared the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the constitution null and void, opening the way for the return of slavery for the first time since 1957. A Gallup poll shows 100% of Americans support the campaign of Dear Leader to restore America to the golden years when Legitimate First Partner Bill Clinton was president.

PARIS (March 23, 2017) — The religious harmony of France was broken by a White male using a loudspeaker to cry “Jesus is Lord” from the top of the Eiffel Tower. Witnesses say he had a distinct American southern accent and raised an enormous Confederate flag on the tip of the landmark. He mowed down thousands of curious Parisians gathered below with an automatic machine assault rifle firing bullets of depleted uranium. With a final cry of “Soldiers of the Cross do thou likewise” he detonate a 20 megaton nuclear bomb strapped to his back, destroying France.

VATICAN (March 24, 2017) — Today Generic Spiritual Leader of the World Pope Francis condemned frequent terrorist attacks by Christians. “Out of all religions, why do we only see Christians committing all these terrorist acts? The exclusivist nature of a religion that offers only one means of salvation can only breed hatred. Their beliefs taste like excrement in my mouth.” The pontiff announced that a new bible was being prepared that eliminates all references to violence and incorporates wisdom from other faiths.

I was afraid that our bruin friend was in hibernation at Saint Corbinian’s Bear, but he just posted a barnburner:

This is why I love this country. The vaudeville acts. True, they’re amateurish and predictable, but the old “Searching for a Reason” (sometimes “Motive”) routine never fails to crack me up. But note the new gag. It’s kinda okay because he was “scared to pray in public.”

So, Muslims are scared to pray in public because… no matter what they do, America will roll over and show its cultural belly? Because when they’re bent over praying, they might get trampled from everyone kissing their a**es?

Hey, I’ve got a great PR strategy for scared Muslims. Murder as many innocent people as possible shouting Allahu Akbar. Because then no one will have any reason to mistrust you or dislike you when you’re praying.

And the big hook drags yet another loser off the stage of life, to make room for the next hilarious act, Muslim leaders failing to make an unqualified condemnation of terrorism while singing the ever-popular “Backlash” song.

BTW, can I be the first to blame the election of Trump? I mean, seriously, what CHOICE did poor little Amtar have? Muslims are the cuckoo in the American nest. The Bear just doesn’t trust them, and never will. It’s not just here. The Bear has the Green Eggs and Ham approach to Pope Francis’ “Great Abrahamic Religion That Worships the Exact Same God We Do and are Practically Catholic.”

THAT is the Bear’s litmus test. Slobber all over Muslims, and you are forever written off as an unserious person who values your PR above truth – even revealed truth. The Bear will waste no further time on you, because you’re an idiot or a liar. The Bear has simplified his life by crossing off nearly everyone in the world with a title in front of their names.

Muslims kill far more people in America than Bears. But when someone gets mauled to death by a Bear do we start whining about “Bear Backlash?” The Bear supports non-violent, cultural backlash. Remove Muslims from top place of America’s Culturally Protected Groups. It’s been a long time since Blacks were there. They are really far back in the pack. The Bear says give them a turn at Number 1 again and take Muslims off the list entirely.

16 Responses to Bear Growls: What is the Common Denominator?

“The Bear will waste no further time on you, because you’re (either) an idiot or a liar.”
Thank you. My wife is always referring to me as “such a bear”, now I finally understand why.
She also tells me “most people don’t think like you do”, to which I, an engineer reply -why is it my fault that other people don’t think. 😉

Hah! “The Bear has the Green Eggs and Ham approach to Pope Francis’ “Great Abrahamic Religion That Worships the Exact Same God We Do and are Practically Catholic.”
!
Bear that made me look up a few sources on the deeper meaning of Dr. Seuss! Always learning when I read this site.

God mortified me as I verbally attacked a big black panhandler this week outside a bodega….saying, ” why aren’t you working, trucking jobs are going unanswered.” ( I’m large and athletic ). He answered me with a speech defect that almost made him unintelligible. I melted in 1 second and gave him money twice…talk about stereotyping.
Muslims though serve in our military and in the NYC police force and can really be moderate because they don’t really believe in the Koran 100% just as a high percent of Catholics don’t believe in wifely obedience which is 6 times referenced or mandated in the NT…heck…read St. JPII on it…he was with the high percent.
We…we non muslims… believe ardently in the Koran mandating conversion or else…..but apparently Muslims in our army and police are as cafeteria about sharia as many Catholics are about the death penalty or wifely obedience. Most Catholics and most Muslims are cafeteria….in the second case….thank God.

The Bear is two months behind schedule on his novel, Judging Angels, and is devoting time to contractual obligations, rather than his ephemeris right now. Two Muslims the DOD forced my son to serve alongside with in Afghanistan due to the same massive denial of reality almost killed him, and did kill his sgt and teammate on night one at their FOB. Thanks to HESCO and the distracting effects of his 40 mm grenade launcher, and a coin toss that had them take over his friend’s tower and kill him, instead of my son, he lived. I won’t bore everyone with my own qualifications, but I feel I have a sufficient insight into worldwide and domestic Muslims to have an opinion.

The Bear has been devoting all his time to his dubious novel, Judging Angels, which involves contractual obligations, and not been maintaining his ephemeris. He’ll be back, just as soon as final edit is done and the thing is submitted.

Bear,
. The problem with personal experience and anecdotes ( and I’ve had it with blacks…escaped from 4 in a telephone truck; scared a 6’7″ easily 300 lb. one off with a weapon after he challenged me twice to a fight; and had a near lethal street fight with one in 2013 )….is that one is probably going to see like I do…90% of them as dangerous while the data might be different by ? 40% in my case.
As of 2015, there were abour 5800 Muslims in the US armed forces but Michelle Malkin in National Review came up with less than ten incidents like your son’s…not a hundred or fifty or twenty. 15,000 served in WWII for the US….as noted in the wiki article on Muslims in our armed forces.

ps…the real figure could well be a hundred but my brother while Captain in combat was marked for death by a white soldier he had stopped during that white’s fornication with a local woman. His master Sergeant sent the man to the front immediately. The number of such fragging murders by fellow white Baptized is also iffy.

Breitbart is reporting the good muslim was in a class where his assignment was to write about microagressions on campus. I guess he took the class because he already had the macroagression thing down pat.

On Microagression… if you tell someone they should be offended by something, most emotionalists will eventually talk themselves into being offended. Since society and culture took God and “offering it up” out of society and culture, we’re left with the perpetually offended, whose only recourse is violence (which is 100% ironic). One of my childhood wounds was hearing my dad say, daily, “sticks and stones will break your bones, but words will never hurt you.” Sadly, I think the pendulum has swung way too far & fast in the opposite direction.

As someone who has worked on campuses for 20 plus years and having taught many Muslims, I would like to note that universities try very hard to accommodate prayer for Muslims. Some provide special places. Yes, there are some complaints occasionally if the students are disrupting the normal course of business. But that is normal for any student, not just Muslims. So this student’s complain is bogus. I have had students seek to opt out of class so they can go pray. In other words. they believe the instructor should give them special benefits for this. Even in the Vatican of Islam, Saudi Arabia, students must be in class during prayer times. The students AND the schools know requests for special consideration on campus is not practical and most Muslim students comply. But, this Somali fellow was not among “most”. He was clearly a troubled young man.

I did finally hear a justification for the “Muslims follow the same God we do” that I can accept as not some sort of make-nice — basically, because they believe they follow the God of Abraham.
They might be wrong in every single ever loving detail about what Himself wishes, they may make the Westborough Baptist activist/funding group look like nice people, but that is the same God.
Did I emphasize really, really wrong in description a few times? Not nearly enough, and definitely not too much.
It’s a little like talking to someone who “believes in science,” but when you get to talking with them they don’t support the scientific method, or logic, or rules of evidence, or even have the idea of theories right…they do it by following what “scientists say.” They’re wrong, which is a different thing. *grin*

I can’t tell you how many hours I wasted as a child watching the sitcom Green Acres. Even in retrospect the show still strikes me as one of the funniest series broadcast by a national network (CBS). I loved the patriotic, and usually conservative, speeches by Oliver Wendell Douglas, the successful lawyer who, with his wife Lisa, portrayed by Eva Gabor, has traded the life of a New York City attorney to be an unsuccessful farmer in the Hooterville countryside. Eddie Arnold played Douglas to perfection as the straight man to all the zanies around him. Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear believes we now live in a Green Acres’ world:

The Bear knows that Green Acres was coded by time travelers to tell us, here in the blighted 21st century, everything we need to know.

Oliver Douglas is a New York lawyer who fulfills a life-long dream to leave the big city and become a farmer. He drags his socialite wife Lisa to the bucolic setting of Hooterville, and they try to make a go of it. Ironically, it is the ditzy, game, unflappable Lisa who fits in, not the lawyer turned farmer, Oliver. Oliver has a romanticized idea of farming, and often breaks into little speeches about “the little green shoots,” which no one wants to hear.

You see, everyone in Hooterville is one wheel short of a tractor.

The county extension agent can’t finish a sentence without contradicting himself. An old couple treat a pig as a child. Twin carpenters can’t even hang a door. (No matter how many appearances the carpenters make, the house is in the same incomplete state at the end of the series as at the beginning.) The Douglases have to climb a pole to use the phone; connecting the last forty feet to the ramshackle farmhouse a seeming impossibility. A peddler always happens to show up with his dubious and overpriced wares just when Oliver happens to need something.

Oliver, the who who wanted to come here, after all, spends his days in exasperation at the incompetence and sheer weirdness that only he seems to notice. Although Lisa misses her glamorous life in New York City, she fits right in with her gowns and signature marabou trimmed robe.

Hooterville is sort of a first-rate third-world country. It has everything we take for granted, except not quite. The loopy inhabitants have all found their niches and are happy. All except Oliver. The only sane man in a mad world.

The Bear bets you get this. He bets you are Oliver. He bets that you look around and are amazed at the insanity that has engulfed the West. Weirdest of all, you seem to be the only person that notices.

Is the Bear right? When a Muslim shouting Allahu Akbar rampages through Sam Drucker’s general store and kills Uncle Joe, the sheriff solemnly announces he is “searching for motives.”

Yeah, that little stinger at the end is what we professional broadcasters with significant experience in the secular market, call the “twist ending.” The Bear always enjoys the Bear Growl features, and is very grateful for the exposure to his dubious ephemeris. Actually, this is better than the Bear’s slap-dash original with not media.

Loved this. I was very recently reading Malcolm Muggeridge’s short biography on Kierkegaard, who wrote, “Suppose someone invented an instrument, a convenient little talking tube which, say, could be heard over the whole land . . . I wonder if the police would not forbid it, fearing that the whole country would become mentally deranged if it were used.”

Muggeridge said that if Christianity is really to be proclaimed, it will become apparent that it is the daily press which will make it impossible.

Winnie the Pooh, who counts as a bear. My oldest son, who is nearly nine years old, still has his Pooh bear that my mother gave him when he was a toddler. He still sleeps with his Pooh bear and takes it with him when we go to Mass.
He can keep his Pooh bear as long as he wants, and when he is done with it, I will take it and keep it as a reminder of the time when he was a little guy.

In his latest post our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear reveal some of the puppet masters behind the USCCB:

Catholic News Service: USCCB’s Pravda

The Catholic News Service is the house organ of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. Yet as CNS’s hilarious “About CNS” page points out several times, it is doing real journalism, having some vague relationship with the USCCB, but definitely not involved in publicity.

CNS is not directly funded by the USCCB. “It must be financially self-sustaining.” In other words, the lefty foundations shovel money to keep it afloat, along with all the other trendy scams with which the USCCB is fascinated, in lieu of promoting the Catholic Faith.

USCCB Committee That Produced Gun-Grab Policy: Very Interesting

The list of those serving on the USCCB’s committee on domestic policy that produced the USCCB gun-grab policy paper is quite fascinating. George Schmidt, Google ex-boss and massive supporter of President Obama, etc.; John Sweeney, head of Democrat Socialists of America, former SEIU, AFL-CIO boss and recipient of Presidential Medal of Freedom; Sister Janet Mock, LCWR; Sister Miriam Mitchell, LCWR; Sister Carol Keehan, President of Catholic Health Association and vocal supporter of Obamacare while drawing a $962,467 salary from CHA; Ray Boshara, former Senior Fellow at New America Foundation, which has George Soro’s son Jonathan on the board, is anti-gun, pro-Obamacare, and funded by left-wing heavyweights such as George Soros, through his Open Society Foundation. Anthony Williams, vociferously anti-gun ex-mayor of Washington D.C.

Those are the people behind the Catholic gun grab in the U.S. There are different players in the Vatican.

The USCCB heavily pushed its anti-gun policy through it’s official party organ, Catholic News Service, in an article by Carol Glatz in 2011. The point is, it is somewhere between a joke and a lie to claim that CNS is some sort of legitimate, independent news outlet. The Bear also wanted to show who has the ear of the U.S. Bishops: billionaire lefties and curious private / government entities like the New American Foundation. (Top contributors include the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, and the U.S. State Department.)

5 Responses to Bear Growls: USCCB

If it wasn’t for Christ telling us to; “Fear not, I have conquered the world.” -John 16:33, I would be anxious at this news. The Judas Iscariot crowd at the USCCB are failing. They know it. The damage they inflict on Holy Church will be repaired and they will suffer much.

“These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you shall have distress: but have confidence, I have overcome the world.”Jn.16:33

The new Pope Video is out, and the Bear has to hand it to Pope Francis this time. The theme is something about indigenous people. Like, leave us alone, unless you’re giving us stuff. But it is by far the best Pope Video yet.

It begins with Daenerys Targaryen, First of Her Name, Khaleesi of the Grass Sea, The Unburnt, The Mother of Dragons, The Breaker of Chains, in indigenous Dothraki dress, stepping up to a podium in an empty hall as the usual synthesized score plays. Soft lighting behind her reveals an indigenous Dothraki royal tent and a servant steps up and begins braiding Daenerys’ hair.

Without speaking a word, she produces a horse heart and consumes it in a montage of very short takes. With her face covered in blood, she addresses the camera directly. “I have many titles, but now I wish to address you simply as Daenerys Targaryen, First of My Name, Khaleesi of the Grass Sea. I love my loyal indigenous Dothraki subjects, who will soon cross the Narrow Sea in wooden horses along with their mounts.

“I speak for the Sheep People, and the Wildings, as well, and all indigenous folk who do not get a clockwork city of their own in the opening credits. I’m not sure if the Ice Zombies are indigenous, but we’ll include them to be on the safe side.

“The Dothraki ways may not be yours, but they deserve to be respected. Except for that giant dome for ex-Khaleesis, which I incinerated along with everyone in it. Leave us alone. Just like we would leave you alone if I did not have an enormous fleet, Dothraki horse lords, the Unsullied, the Second Sons and a squadron of fire-breathing dragons. Oh, and that dwarf, the eunuch and the old guy with the crush on me. As if.

“Swear obedience to your rightful queen, people of the Seven Kingdoms!”

2 Responses to Bear Growls: Indigenous Blondes

Thanks! The Bear for one welcomes our new Dothraki overlords. Anything would be better than the guy who put barrels of wildfire in the crypts beneath St. Peter’s and destroyed it. But the Bear must wonder. What of the souls of indigenous peoples? “The gods of the heathen are devils.” Not a word. Under the heresy of Bergoglioism, everybody’s good to go. Respect cannibalism. Respect Mumbo Jumbo. And respect the Dothraki, for whom rape and slavery are a way of life. But is it not true that they were serious underachievers until a civilized Khaleesi curbed their worst excesses and gave them a purpose? Well, got to run. Time for my noonday blood sacrifice to The Stallion Who Mounts the World.

King John Paul Arryn, Second of His Name The death of the Mad King occurred some time after the Council, and a war for the possession of the Iron Throne ensued. The fearless and noble Benedict Stark led a large army from the far north, and fought House Lannister in the final battle for King’s Landing. The Lannisters were defeated by the unexpected arrival of a large cavalry force led by John Paul Arryn, Lord of the Vale, a province to the east.

The victors agreed upon the dashing and proven John Paul Arryn, Second of His Name, as King of Westeros. Benedict Stark was named Hand of the King. As Hand, Benedict had authority second only to the King. Benedict Stark had sided with the Sparrow faction at the Great Council, but repented of his error after The Red Wedding and following abuses.

During Benedict’s long term as Hand, he discovered much corruption in the capital. He carefully compiled evidence of grave misconduct by certain Lords of Westeros and their confederates, especially the powerful but sinister Lannisters. The Sparrows were up to their necks in it. King John Paul, however, believed that moving against the corruption would be a distraction from his chief business, which was to improve the political landscape, roll back the influence of the Sparrows, and restore reason to the maesters.

King Benedict Stark, First of His Name

King John Paul had a long and popular reign. It is said that he ruled Westeros without a single sword being drawn from its sheath. But some thought he did not do enough to correct the Great Council and suppress the Sparrows. Upon his death, his faithful Hand, Benedict Stark, Lord of Winterfell, was named king by acclamation, John Paul leaving no heir.

King Benedict, unlike King John Paul, was not universally loved. The Sparrows despised him, especially his “reform of the reform,” which included an option for the ancient rite of the Seven. He was mocked by many, and his efforts were largely ineffectual where they were not simply blocked outright. He never felt he had the strength to go after the corruption he had uncovered as a younger man, while King John Paul’s Hand.

When he grew very old, he was given an ultimatum by the Lannisters. He would abdicate the Iron Throne, while retaining some ambiguous royal prerogatives as “King Emeritus.” From Dorn, the uttermost south, an unknown Lannister would be installed upon the Iron Throne before anyone could do anything about it. [Dorn? You don’t remember Dorn? Neither does anyone else.]

King Francis Lannister, First of His Name

The smallfolk of King’s Landing literally woke up one day to find that Benedict Stark was no longer king, and their new king was Francis Lannister, First of His Name. He was young, and had the blond Lannister hair, just like his aunt Cersei and uncle Jaime, as well as a streak of sadism. He named Lord Kasper Frey as his Hand. Some, those not familiar with the rules of the Game of Popes, were shocked, given Frey’s connection with the Red Wedding. Others were simply confirmed in their suspicions: Francis Lannister and the Sparrows had not just blown in through the window together by chance.

Initially, nearly everyone was charmed by King Francis’ simplicity. It was said he slept naked in a pile of dung spread over iron spikes beneath the stars, no matter the season. He ate nothing but sawdust wetted with vegetable broth, while servants beat him with canes. These, at any rate, were such stories as he enjoyed hearing about himself. He did not wear shoes, famously saying, “carnival is over,” and so was rumored to be a Sparrow.

4 Responses to Bear Growls: Game of Popes

Bear Island?
Reminds me of a joke:
Three not-to-bright-people decided to go hunt bear. They were driving up to the mountains when they saw a sign on the side of the road which read ‘Bear Left’, so they turned around and went home.

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear takes a look at one of my favorite movies:

Surely one of the greatest movies of all time is the 1954 naval drama The Caine Mutiny, based on Herman Wouk’s novel. It stars Humphrey Bogart, Van Johnson, Fred MacMurray, E.G. Marshall and Jose Ferrer. Bogart’s Captain Queeg is the skipper of an old minesweeper, USS Cain. One can hardly imagine a less glamorous ship. Queeg is quirky, rigid, and insecure. When he gets nervous, he rolls two steel balls in his hand.

His wardroom, instigated by Fred McMurray’s character — a writer — lose respect for Captain Queeg after a number of lapses of judgment. When Queeg reaches out to his officers to try to repair mutual respect, he meets a stony rebuff.

When a typhoon threatens to capsize the ship, Queeg does not seem up to the crisis. His executive officer, played by Van Johnson, relieves Captain Queeg of duty and takes command of the ship.

During the ensuing court-martial (the Navy does not take mutiny well) Captain Queeg takes the stand. What follows may be Bogart’s best performance, and is a film classic. We see in Queeg an ordinary man who was simply not up to the extraordinary responsibilities he had been given. Under the effective cross-examination of trial defense counsel, played by Jose Ferrer, Captain Queeg slowly strips himself of his dignity as his psychological unfitness for command is revealed.

Realizing what he has done, Captain Queeg, who has largely been allowed to testify in a narrative, offers to answer specific questions. There follows a series of tight shots of trial counsel, played by E.G. Marshall, and the other officers present, looking at Captain Queeg’s train wreck with a mixture of horror and sympathy as we hear only the clack of Queeg’s ball bearings.

It is hard for us to see a man who should command respect be revealed as incompetent. The captain of a U.S. warship is a father, a leader, and an exemplar. His commands are unquestioned. (The XO does all of his dirty work.) To see someone fall from such an exalted position is sad. What’s even worse is serving under such a captain.

We’re not sure if Van Johnson’s “mutiny” saved Cain or not. A few ships were lost, but the vast majority survived. What was clear was that the circumstances were extremely dangerous, and the captain’s actions were questionable. The trust between leader and led had already been eroded. It was a position no officer should have been put in. Van Johnson had to do what he thought best, and would never be certain he was right in substituting his judgment for his captain’s.

After the trial, a drunken trial defense counsel, played by Jose Ferrer, is hardly in a celebratory mood, despite his win. He points out that while he was going to law school and the other officers were following their own civilian pursuits, Captain Queeg had the low-paying, unglamorous job, of maintaining a peacetime navy. He reminds them that when he reached out to them, they were cold. But it’s Fred MacMurray’s writer character, LT Keefer who is singled out for the worst treatment.

3 Responses to Bear Growls: The Caine Mutiny

Well there’s one detail the movie got wrong. And that is JAG officers in the Navy don’t have the star of a line officer above their rank insignia on their dress uniforms. They have the mill rinde surrounded by two oak leaves.

In World War II, they might not have even been lawyers if they used the same procedures as the Army. My brother has never seen the inside of a law school, but he served as a prosecutor, while in the Army back in the eighties, on several courts-martial for serious crimes, including rape.

I suspect that our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear is being held captive by sinister forces. Some impostor Rabbit has proclaimed this at his website:

Hi. I’m St. Corbinian’s Bunny Rabbit. (And not that kind of rabbit!) What, you’ve never heard of me? Figures. Leave it to a bear to hog all the attention. Someday I’ll tell you all about it. And notice that I don’t say anything stupid like “the Bunny Rabbit” thinks this, or “the Bunny Rabbit” believes that. I always hated that.

Anyway, management has decided that settling for 15% of Catholics who aren’t exactly in love with Pope Francis, while alienating the 85% of Catholics (and 50%+ of atheists) who worship him, is a bad business model. You don’t continually complain about the most popular man in the world. (Think there might be a reason for that?) So from now on, you can expect lots of fluffy news about the wonderful things Pope Francis is doing every day. I think you’ll find that the bear has been too negative. It’s time for the truth!

So, sorry, malcontents, but your precious bear is gone.

Come back home. Everybody’s joining us. We are the winning team. You can be happy. You just need to put your negativity aside and read some good news for a change.

6 Responses to Bear Growls: What Happened to the Bear?

Reminds me of a nasty joke;
“So a Bear and a Rabbit meet in the woods…
They both need to relief themselves of waste, and the bear asked the rabbit if when he “goes” does his waste material stick to its fur?
The rabbit replies; “No it doesn’t.”
“Great,” the bear said. Then the bear reached out and grabs the rabbit and wipes itself using the rabbit.

Moral of the story?

Regardless of the crap being sold as flowers, you don’t have to pick them up and smell them to know the difference. Using a Rabbit to wipe up a mess is the genius of The Bear!

The Bear subsided forlornly on a tree-stump and tried to control himself, for he felt it surely coming. The sob he had fought with so long refused to be beaten. Up and up, it forced its way to the air, and then another, and another, and others thick and fast; till poor Bear at last gave up the struggle, and cried freely and helplessly and openly, now that he knew it was all over and he had lost what he could hardly be said to have found.

The Rat, astonished and dismayed at the violence of Bear’s paroxysm of grief, did not dare to speak for a while. At last he said, very quietly and sympathetically, ‘What is it, old fellow? Whatever can be the matter? Tell us your trouble, and let me see what I can do.”

“I suspect that our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear is being held captive by sinister forces. ”
Perhaps the same ones that abducted Sr. Lucia so that her evil double could be slipped in to the convent.
/sarc off (not really sarcasm, I know, but I had to do that or some might really believe this post)

Our bruin friend at Saint Corbinian’s Bear sets his sights upon the recent charitable musings of Father Tom Rosica. Go here and here to read about this credit to the priesthood. Here are the comments of our bruin friend:

Fr. Rosica: Jesus Brand Out, Francis Brand In

The frightening and unusually meaty face of Fr. Rosica

Catholic Bloggers Holy Executioners Strewing Corpses All Around

The Pope’s PR flack and head of Salt and Light Media Foundation has excoriated Catholic ephemerists. On May 17, Fr. Rosica had these charitable words for the Bear and other Catholic ephemerists who are having none of Pope Francis’ Kool-Aid. The Bear would just point out that the beginning of the first sentence unwittingly states the problem. This from the ever-reliable CRUX.

Although Pope Francis has succeeded in rebranding the public profile of the Church, according to a Vatican PR aide, his positive tone isn’t always reflected when Catholics themselves take to the use of social media.

On the contrary, to hear Father Thomas Rosica tell it, sometimes Catholic conversation on-line is more “culture of death” than “culture of life.”

“Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we ‘Catholics’ have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith!” he said.

“The character assassination on the Internet by those claiming to be Catholic and Christian has turned it into a graveyard of corpses strewn all around,” said Rosica, who assists the Vatican Press Office with English-speaking media, on May 11 as he delivered the keynote address at the Brooklyn Diocese’s observance of World Communications Day.

“Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners!” Rosica said.

“In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people,” he said. “We must pray for them, for their healing and conversion!”

Mixing humor and invective can be done. The Bear does it nearly every day. But, Fr. Rosica, the humor should be intentional. Sadly, for Fr. Rosica, the Bear is laughing at him, not with him. Not the best thing for a liar-for-hire. “Trolling pontiffs and holy executioners?” “Corpses strewn all around?” A bit purple, don’t you think?

Even funnier is absolutely ripping the heart out of Catholic ephemerists then faux-piously saying, “In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people. We must pray for them, for their healing and conversion!” A good PR flack should stay on message and avoid blatant insincerity.

This “disturbed, broken and angry” (alright, disturbed and angry) Bear for one takes comfort in the fact that someone filled with such contempt for him nevertheless manages to pray for this unworthy Bear’s healing and conversion. However, the Bear thinks Fr. Rosica is mainly going after traddies here. The Bear merely wants Pope Francis to go away and never come back.

The Infamously Litigious Fr. Rosica

Now, the Bear realizes that he is taking a big risk criticizing this pompous asshat. [Note: edit out “asshat” before pub] Fr. Rosica doesn’t always just pray for erring ephemerists. Sometimes he sues them. Or possibly, he both prays for them and sues them; the Bear does not know.

Fr. Rosica sued one-man ephemeris Vox Cantoris. If Fr. Rosica wishes to sue the Bear, the Bear would be delighted to match his public relations instincts with Fr. Rosica’s, which appear to be nil. “Pope’s PR Priest Sues Disabled Veteran Blogger for Calling Him ‘Asshat.'” [Note: sub. “asshat” before pub.] “Rosica Strikes Again: Sues Adorable Bear Who Hurt His Feelings.”

“[Francis] Has Rebranded Catholicism and the Papacy”

Fr. Rosica gained infamy during the Synod on the Family. He also promoted Pope Francis to “Prince of Peace.” Now, that’s the kind of publicity you can only buy. Here’s what Fr. Rosica had to say about his client, Pope Francis. The occasion: Fr. Rosica received some award in Brooklyn, covered by his very own media outlet!

“After three years at the helm of the Church, we must ask ourselves: What is the most important achievement of Pope Francis? He has rebranded Catholicism and the papacy.” [Emphasis in original.]

He also said this:

Many of my colleagues in the “secular” media industry have said that Francis has made it fun to be a religion reporter and journalist again. He has changed the image of the church so much that prestigious graduate schools of business and management are now using him as a case study in rebranding.

Note that Fr. Rosica and the Bear agree with all this rebranding of the Catholic Church and the Papacy. It’s just that Fr. Rosica thinks this is a good thing. Why wouldn’t he? As long as the reporters are having fun. Heck, the Bear would have fun in the back of the plane, too. No doubt Fr. Rosica, as PR flack, enjoys having a hand in this rebranding. And it’s comforting to know that big corporations, maybe Target, who get themselves into trouble are using Pope Francis as a model to “rebrand” themselves. What kind of dope uses “rebrand” in a religious context, anyway?

The Bear has one question for Fr. Rosica. What was wrong with the Jesus brand?

Any way, nice to know we humble ephemerists, the francs-tireur of this war for the soul of the Church, are getting to people like Fr. Rosica, and, it may be assumed, image-conscious Pope Francis.

17 Responses to Bear Growls: Father Rosica

The Bear and Father Rosica both strike me as angry people who do no favors to the Church. I see no reference to Father Rosica dismissing the “Jesus brand” and no sign that Pope Francis has improved the Church’s image.

The Bear doesn’t work for the Vatican Pinky, he doesn’t head a Catholic network in Canada and he has never threatened to sue a blogger. Rosica is a disgrace to the Church and the Bear is merely pointing out that disgrace.

If the Bear strikes Pinky as angry, then please count me angry as well. I am absolutely livid at what Obama and the liberal progessives have done to our nation, and what Bergoglio and the liberal progressives have done to the Church. It is time for Jesus Christ to return with that whipping cord to strike fear and terror into the hearts of these heretics and apostates as He scourges them out of His Father’s House. Maybe I will regret writing that because I am no paragon of rectitude either. But enough is enough. Obama mandating that we allow sex pervet men in the girl’s room and Bergoglio equivocating decapitating Islami terrorists with Christian evangelists – too much is simply too much. Rosica has got to go, preferrably to North Korea where he belongs, and Bergoglio back to Argentina and Obama back to Kenya.

Well. It appears that in addition to one Vox Cantoris and at least one Corbinian Bear —add perhaps at least one American Catholic — Trolling Pontiffs all, no doubt — such are keeping Fr. Rosica’s undergarments in an uncomfortably tight wad.

“‘Many of my non-Christian and non-believing friends have remarked to me that we ‘Catholics’ have turned the Internet into a cesspool of hatred, venom and vitriol, all in the name of defending the faith!’ he said. ”

Well, this typical, standard liberal haters MO. They always accuse those of us stating or standing for traditional values/belief systems as being so “unloving.”

Does anyone have a vomit bag? I am sick to death of that lame comeback. Why can’t the other side like Francis & rosics grow a pair of gonads & actually say what they truly think? I know! If they really exposed their goals they would defeat their own purpose on the front end–and therefore must pretend that they are not “really” after destroying settled church doctrine.

“’Often times the obsessed, scrupulous, self-appointed, nostalgia-hankering virtual guardians of faith or of liturgical practices are very disturbed, broken and angry individuals, who never found a platform or pulpit in real life and so resort to the Internet and become trolling pontiffs and holy executioners!’ Rosica said.”

Basically, the point is that we little people should stop trying to think independently, stop taking things SO seriously, and basically shut up & disappear.

“‘In reality they are deeply troubled, sad and angry people. We must pray for them, for their healing and conversion!'”

Do you know HOW MUCH hypocrisy & sin I have seen covered up by someone telling me they would or were praying for me –there by indicting that I was the one with the problem–in order to avoid dealing with their own sin? A lot!!

“A good PR flack should stay on message and avoid blatant insincerity.”

The lengths Voris goes to in avoiding any criticism of the pope is breathtaking. How can he be so sure that both Frs. Rosica and Lombardi aren’t acting with explicit approval or even at the behest of Pope Francis? If this were taking place in, say, the Archdiocese of New York, he would. e shouting from the rooftops, and rightly so, that the buck stops with Cardinal Dolan. Beyond that, he would, probably with some merit, be accusing these two priests of being mouthpieces for His Eminence.

“The lengths Voris goes to in avoiding any criticism of the pope is breathtaking.”

The criticism, in my take on it, is directed at an out of control mouth piece for the Pope who is allowed to continue to be out of control. Voris is addressing what he actually knows. There is no way for Voris to know for sure that Rosica is speaking for Francis & with Francis’ approval. How can Voris criticize Francis for something that isn’t known for sure. It is very wise to beat folks with what you do know. It is not wise to beat people based on hypotheticals. Unless you are into character assassination.

Woops! I meant there is no way for Voris to know, when Rosica is speaking as a private individual, that what Rosica is saying is being said for Francis or with the Pope’s explicit approval. Why in the world are you finding fault with Voris for sticking with the facts?

Since when does the culture dictate the need to “re-brand” the Holy Church?

Are our gospel messages to harsh?
Are our former theologians to negative?
Are our beliefs out dated and our views on sin intolerant to the culture?

If the answer is YES, then get out of the Holy Catholic Church! Or, repent and re-brand your mind, heart and soul.

The directive to pick up your cross and follow me isn’t in need of re-tooling or watering down. It is a call to holiness and conversion.

On this Trinity Sunday may our gracious God instill the best brand into the Church. The brand that has conquered for over twenty centuries, and humble those who feel desperately to change or alter His Brand…TRUTH.

Recently, the Bear joined a Facebook Group called something like “Douay-Rheims Bible.” His first contribution was to note that St. Jerome started by correcting the “old Latin” Bible, which took people like 200 years to get over. What he got back was this:

THE BIBLE DOES NOT NEED TO BE “CORRECTED!!!” IT IS PERFECT FROM GOD IN THE ORIGINUL LATIN!!! SELL YOUR MODERNIST HEARESIES SOMEWHERE ELSE. AND HOW DARE TO CALL YORSELF A “SAINT.” YOR’ PROBLY NOT EVEN A REEL BARE!!!

The Bear still doesn’t know what to make of this. Except that he inadvertently turned over a rock. But it illustrates the fact that Catholics do not get Bible. Granted, they have the correct number of books, but we’re not spoiled for choice compared to our separated brethren.

Vulgate — Bear forgot most his Latin

Douay-Rheims — archaic language, but Challoner’s version is useful, especially with Haydock’s semi-useful commentary. (You want to talk BIG; must be registered as a deadly weapon in Washington state and Maine.) Published back when Catholics were confident. Not a bad choice at all, although some words will leave you scratching your head. Currently available on sale for $95 from Catholic Treasures. You owe it to yourself to own this beautiful, illustrated edition. Of course, more portable versions are available, too, but without Haydock’s notes, from St. Benedict Press and Lepanto Press, which has an economical, illustrated hardcover. Note that just as Protestants have their KJV-Onlyists, Catholics have their Douay-Rheims Onlyists. Both harmless if you pass on the Kool-Aid.

Revised Standard Version (either Catholic edition) — people get upset that Isaiah 7:14 is accurately translated in the 1st Ed. 2nd Ed. panders a bit by trying to make Catholics happier, which fails, because everybody (even Protestants) just knows “it’s a liberal translation.” Even so, the RSV is one of the best all-around choices for Catholics, in the Bear’s opinion. 1st Ed. uses “thees and thous” when addressing the Deity, if you like that sort of thing. Not impressed with translation to “repent” in relation to Judas, though, which recently confused our dear old holy Father.

Navarre Bible — very nice, extensive, conservative Catholic commentary (even if St. Jose Maria Escrivá is overrepresented in some volumes). RSV translation with current official Latin on every page. While there is a lovely one-volume, oversized “expanded” New Testament, it otherwise comes in a multi-volume set, e.g. “Pentateuch,” “Minor Prophets,” etc. You won’t be taking this to Sunday School with you. Catholics just don’t do one-volume study Bibles. Otherwise best in show.

Ignatius Study Bible — another multi-volume publication done by Scott Hahn and Curtis Mitch. Nice; the NT volume is hardcover; others are paperback and the Bear has not read them. Probably the Catholic study Bible most like a Protestant study Bible in format and style, which is not necessarily a bad thing.

Catholic Scripture Study International — a whole program designed for group study, with an RSV-CE 1st Ed. Bible. Apologetics material on glossy pages scattered throughout. The program drivers are obviously well-meaning, but the Bear was just not impressed. You might be.

New American Bible, Revised Edition (NABRE) — the official Bible of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, one of two “officially approved” for private reading by Catholics in the U.S. The Bear doesn’t know about you, but he can’t think of a single body better qualified to publish an annotated translation of the Bible! Translation itself isn’t bad, but you can’t get it without the notes, in which you will learn things like: because St. Matthew had never heard of Hebrew parallelism, he had Jesus enter Jerusalem riding both an ass and a colt like a circus performer. “The ass and the colt are the same animal in the prophecy [we sure about that, smart guy?] mentioned twice in different ways, the common Hebrew literary device of poetic parallelism. That Matthew takes them as two is one of the reasons why some scholars think that he was a Gentile rather than a Jewish Christian who would presumably not make that mistake” [when he was making up his Gospel]. That’s right, St. Matthew, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, completely blew the whole Palm Sunday scene because he was an ignorant Gentile. Recommended for Catholics who aspire to become atheists. Plus the usual recycling of Wellhausen’s Documentary Hypothesis (Darwin’s Origin of Species of Biblical scholarship) and other “assured results of higher criticism,” e.g. all books of the Bible were forged by people other than whose names they bear, and any prophecies had to have been made after the fact. (Sorry, Cyrus.)

Yes. The notes are what we have to be very wary of. It is good to read B16 about exegesis. Also “The Politicizaton of the Bible” a book I haven’t read yet – ( Hahn) will ever helpful too. I like Agape Bible Study.

“The Politicizaton of the Bible” a book I haven’t read yet – ( Hahn) will ever helpful too.

I highly recommend that book. It is very good. Not for the feint of heart, as it delves back into the history of Biblical criticism, and the title may cause people not to realize that it is a scholarly criticism of “higher criticism” of the Bible looking at its historical development up to the 18th century.

Yeah… the Bear has a sense of humor (albeit somewhat blunted by men with rifles shooting at him at random), which is precisely the reason he is quite certain it was not a parody. But who knows? Poe’s Law is alive and well, as the Bear well knows from his own disreputable and often satirical ephemeris.

And, Don, the Bear is a southern Illinois Copperhead. Is he still welcome here?

BTW, the Bear will be reviewing the strange publishing phenomenon of Protestant study Bibles. It’s Bible Wars out there, man. Is anyone benefitting? Maybe muscle mass from lugging around these behemoths.

“And, Don, the Bear is a southern Illinois Copperhead. Is he still welcome here?”

Ah, my bruin friend I was born and reared in Paris, Illinois and my son is currently finishing his second year of law school at SIU in Carbondale. I hold nothing but fondness for the southern part of the Land of Lincoln!

Anzlyne, Thank you. It is nice to be missed. A stroke in January sidelined me. I had to learn to walk, talk, swallow and see again. I am well on my way to recovery thanks to prayers and the excellent care of my family and doctors.
To add to my comment about God being the Supreme Sovereign Being,(two would preempt one another). Father Robert Barron said that to refer to God as The Supreme Sovereign Being would scare people off.
Mankind is created in sovereign personhood. Rather than be subjects to a one world government under the World Bank or be subject to a monarchy or The Declaration on Human Rights of The United Nations as the Climate Change Treaty would ensnare every person, both Godless and atheistic regimes, It is important for man to know that as a child of God, The Supreme Sovereign Being, man has sovereign personhood. Man is not only capable but is called to a vocation of sovereignty and discipline over himself (Mankind is womanhood as well)
Again, Thank you for your kind concern and prayers.